We are still in the preparatory phase of sorts now, making tops for the drives (which are the "headsets"). I do things like cutting plastic holders, cutting canulas, "reaming" the cannulas (making sure the hole goes all the way through), gluing these tiny parts under the microscope, etc.
I ran a rat in the maze for the first time this past week. I ran rat #25 (the rats aren't named to keep the necessary end-process less painful for the experimenters). This rat has been running the maze for a while, a did nearly all 40 trials with no mistakes. Basically the maze consists of two "contexts," and then banana scented paper shreddings in a small ceramic pot and hazelnut scented beads in another small ceramic pot. In one context, one pot always holds a fruit loop, and in the other context, the other pot always has the fruit loop. Rats love fruit loops. Once they realize that if they eat them it wont hurt them. They are one of the few (only?) animals that cannot throw up, which can be a problem if they ingest something dangerous to themselves.
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